Jim Parsons and Johnny Galecki are two lucky guys.

Not only are they starring on a hit CBS sitcom, ‘The Big Bang Theory,” with the lovely Kaley Cuoco, but they are living the major male fantasy, the nerdy guys, or geniuses as they prefer to be called, have a shot at romancing the beautiful blonde girl next door.

If all of that wasn’t enough of a romp, they are having a blast on screen and playing a mean game of ping-pong with their co-stars and crew-members off the screen.

Johnny Galecki plays CalTech nerd Leonard Hofstadter, while Jim Parsons plays his best friend and fellow geek Sheldon Cooper. Producer Chuck Lorre [also known for his hit show Two and a Half Men], said Galecki and Parsons were a match made in TV heaven.

“The first time they read together, it was real obvious that we had a remarkable combination of talents, really something,” says Lorre. “For these two [Jim and Johnny] it was one of the cases of the joys of casting, when somebody walks in and just blows your mind.” He said that all four guys – Jim, Johnny, Kunal and Simon all did that. They were people who could truly feel comfortable inside the skin of someone this remarkable.

During the audition process, Lorre said he was looking for guys would stand out. ”Most of the actors who auditioned were kind of doing what they’d seen. They were playing the absent-minded professor, or they were doing something they’d seen in film or television as opposed to actually embodying the character,” he explained. “I think it’s really remarkable when someone comes in and their whole body becomes the character as opposed to just saying the words. That’s when it goes to another level, and you sit back and go, “We’re very lucky. Let’s embrace this person and never let them go. Sign them to a million-year contract.”
Before this sitcom, Galecki was best known to television audiences for his role as David in the long-running comedy series "Roseanne," for which he won a Young Artist Award. His additional series credits include a recurring role in "My Boys" and guest roles in "My Name is Earl." Galecki's feature film credits include "Hancock," opposite Will Smith, Charlize Theron and Jason Bateman, "The Opposite of Sex," "Bounce," "Happy Endings," "Vanilla Sky," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," "Suicide Kings," "Bookies," "Chrystal," "Playing Mona Lisa," "Bean," and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." Galecki has numerous stage credits to his name. Most recently, he starred in the Tony Award-nominated Broadway play "The Little Dog Laughed," for which he received a 2007 Theater World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut. His other theater credits include "The Drawer Boy" and "Pot Mom" at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, "The Member of the Wedding," for which he was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award, and "Galileo," at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, among others.
Born in Belgium, when his father was stationed there while serving in the U.S. Air Force, Galecki was raised in Chicago. He currently resides in Los Angeles. Jim Parsons was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and a Television Critics Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy for his portrayal of brilliant and quirky scientist Sheldon Cooper. Parsons has appeared on the big screen in "School for Scoundrels" and "Heights." He has also played pivotal roles in several independent films, including "Garden State," "Gardner of Eden" and "The Great New Wonderful." His other television credits include a recurring role in the series "Judging Amy," and guest appearance on "Ed." He has performed in many stage productions, including "The Castle" for the Manhattan Ensemble Theater and "The Countess" for the Globe Theater, as well as "The Tempest" and "As You Like It" for the Houston Shakespeare Festival.

Parsons has a Masters in Fine Arts degree from the Old Globe Theater/University of San Diego and a B.A. in theater from the University of Houston.

DCM: Jim, you particularly have some fairly tongue-tying dialogue to deal with. Could you talk a bit about that?

JIM PARSONS: It was a lot of memorization. It was a lot of writing down lines. It was a lot of — a pronouncing dictionary, but it was a pleasure.

DCM: Tell me more.

JIM PARSONS: It’s a wonderful thing, actually, that many words because it’s something good to rely on when you get out there. You got that behind you. You don’t have to think as much. You have to concentrate on getting that damn line out, and then everything else is taking care of itself.

DCM: And actually, for both of you, just how smart are you guys?

JIM PARSONS: In real life? I’m going to actually answer for Johnny. Johnny seems very intelligent to me thus far. He’s taken me to some nice restaurants, and we’re getting to know each other to work and – The Zagat guide — research is half the battle.

DCM: And Johnny?

JOHNNY GALECKI: I’m not nearly as intelligent as the character obviously, but I did really well all the way through the middle of 8th grade.

DCM: Johnny, please talk a little bit about developing the comic timing for this show. First of all, you were quite young when you were on “Roseanne,” and during those years, did you get some sensibilities about comedy from that? Did you work with (Big Bang producer) Chuck Lorre? Was Chuck there at the same time that you were there?

JOHNNY GALECKI: The first three or four episodes, he was there, yes. Yeah. I learned a lot from being on that show especially — I mean Roseanne and John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf couldn’t be more different types of actors.

DCM: Please go on.

JOHNNY GALECKI: Well, Laurie, being from the theater in Chicago where I’m from and John being a very disciplined film actor. And Roseanne, who just likes to wing it, likes to go on stage and wing it as a comic. So to be able to kind of pick and choose and create my own imagination of what kind of worked for me was just a priceless experience and lessons. I wasn’t an actor before I did that show, before I started it. But when I started that show, learning from those three especially was amazing.

DCM: And then, we lost track of you for a while. And now, on this show you’ve got a really distinctive comedy touch. What was the next step to developing that?

JOHNNY GALECKI: Oh, probably a bit of both, I suppose. I mean, you know, it always helps with a studio audience too. A studio audience always kind of guides a pace or a mood or an energy, and they’re a palpable character in the room. But it’s also the writing and character and playing off Jim especially.

JIM PARSONS: Huge help.

DCM: Jim, is this your biggest part ever or –

JIM PARSONS: In front of a camera, heavens yes, definitely.

DCM: I mean, I see you have quite a few credits but this is a really major show for you. Right? –

JIM PARSONS: Yes, I’ve worked, but, no, this is definitely — and definitely the most exciting, too. It’s nice to really get to be active, and, not be sitting around waiting to do your two lines. “Heh, heh,” you know, go wait some more.

DCM: Did you think you’d wind up as a sitcom star? Was that kind of a surprise?

JIM PARSONS: Well, only the surprise being the numbers game with my God. Thank you. But I always – I grew up watching — so — well, “Three’s Company” was really the biggest thing that I, as a child, was hooked on, and I kind of went from there. I feel like “Three’s Company” is the last one I was kind of hooked on after that. And I did so much theater and stuff and then kind of came back full circle to getting — that’s how it feels right now. There’s plenty of life left, knock on wood, but this circle feels good.

DCM: You considered the other role before the show was cast – true?

JOHNNY GALECKI: Yes. But I couldn’t hold a candle to what Mr. Parsons is doing with that role.

DCM: How does everyone keep your character so lovable?

JIM PARSONS: Yeah. The somewhat unspoken collaboration between us -- me, Chuck, me, the rest of the writers -- is simply that we have to walk up to the line. We cannot cross it. And we've had to go through scenes where we've had to correct on the spot going "We've gone too far. We must bring this back. The audience is not pleased with the way you are talking to Penny." We can be biting, and he can observe something in a situation, maybe get snarky about it, but he can't -- it can't be malicious. And it's a fine line, but it isn't just -- it is also the words, carefully chosen especially to someone like Penny that you don't want to put it in a position where people are groaning, well, not always, at least.

DCM: Please tell me more.

JIM PARSONS: There's no telling five years from now. I want to say in addition to that, no one ever says they are just like Sheldon. Everyone always knows someone just like Sheldon.

DCM: Talk about the character of Penny.

JIM PARSONS: Book smarts versus barn smarts is what we’re trying to portray.

DCM: Johnny, can you talk a bit about what it is like to play that, that give-and-take?

JOHNNY GALECKI: Well, it seems that whenever there is -- they take a romantic break, that the relationship or the dynamic graduates some in their friendship and in some sort of equality, and so it's just -- it's a more profound dynamic. It's not just infatuation for Leonard anymore. There's a -- she gives him advice sometimes about other women. There's something that I think, you know, kind of lays the foundation for a significant relationship, possibly.

DCM: Talk about the Christmas episode – that was a major turning point for the show and your character.

JIM PARSONS: -- he was pushed to physicality to express an emotion he was having. I mean, my God, you know, that's as close to anything he's had to a sex scene. I mean, it was so fun. Just a whole lot of fun.

DCM: Johnny, could you talk a little bit about maybe the challenges that you are, for the most part, the island of sanity in the midst of this craziness? I don't know if I want to use the word "straight man" or words. But, also, your character has become, at least among the male characters, sort of the great lover of the group, you know. Can you talk a little bit about all of that?

JOHNNY GALECKI: Yeah. That's ironic. I did not see that coming. I've had more make-out scenes in this. Who knew that I might catch mono playing this role (laughter). Well, I think he's -- Leonard is grounded in a certain way that -- and sometimes I wonder if it's in unhappiness, but I thought, like -- I watched a lot of "Taxi" before we started, specifically Judd Hirsch, because there was such an anchor to that character and in a great ensemble, you know. I don't know if it helped.

DCM: Jim and Johnny, how much of you guys are actually in these characters? You know, are you guys friends off the set?

JOHNNY GALECKI: Yeah, we are very different than our characters. I mean, the honesty has to come from you and your own personal experiences, but then you kind of build the character on top of that. And, you know, I stole the posture of a meerkat and things like that. You build the mask, you know. But the core of the characters is probably the core of us, personally.

JIM PARSONS: Yeah, I would say so. I mean, you know, we immediately read together well rhythmically, musically, if you will, and that was not -- so -- and I always come back to that because that was just -- that's just such an unknowable, I mean, because we didn't -- we literally didn't know each other when we read together the first time, and it just felt differently, you know. We had read with several other people, yada-yada-yada, and it was a marked difference. I had no reason to believe one way or the other, personally, why did this work or not, and you just do it, and --

JOHNNY GALECKI: I remember being outside with you.

JIM PARSONS: Yeah, before the audition.

JOHNNY GALECKI: And I said, "Do you want to rehearse it? Do you want to go through it once?" And he said, "No." And I said, "Perfect. I like you already."

JIM PARSONS: That being said, we certainly have developed a relationship and a friendship, and we all see each other a fair amount outside of here -- a fair amount -- a lot, but the reason I bring that up is because I just think that still, while that's helping in growing -- and that goes for all of us, I think -- the relationships that are developing, so much is just, like I say, unknowable. And we are very fortunate that they put us together.